Too often dismissed as escapist entertainment or vilified as mass manipulation, popular cinema in the Third Reich was in fact sustained by well-established generic conventions, cultural traditions, aesthetic sensibilities, social practices, and a highly developed star system—not unlike its Hollywood counterpart in the 1930s. This pathfinding study contributes to the ongoing reassessment of Third Reich cinema by examining it as a social, cultural, economic, and political practice that often conflicted with, contradicted, and compromised the intentions of the Propaganda Ministry. Nevertheless, by providing the illusion of a public sphere presumably free of politics, popular cinema helped to sustain the Nazi regime, especially during the war years.

Adolf Hitler was appointed Reich chancellor on January 30, 1933. Once they had seized power in Germany, the Nazis did not relinquish it until their demise on May 8, 1945. The Third Reich lasted for 12 years, 3 months, and 9 days. It began with great hopes and unprecedented jubilation and ended after a world war in which more than 50 million people were killed, Germany was destroyed and the European Jews murdered.

"The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is fascinating…a powerful introduction to the freakish enormity that was Nazism". (The New York Times) This fascinating 1968 documentary recounts the events that led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. A painstakingly compiled pictorial record of Adolf Hitler's twelve-year reign of terror. Included are interviews with many of Hitler's closest associates.

A Newsreel History of the Third Reich at War: Go behind enemy lines on a journey that traces the rise and fall of German military fortunes… the great battles, the desperate hours captured via authentic uncut newsreels, exactly as presented to German wartime cinema audiences.Now see the Second World War as you've never seen it before: Through Enemy Eyes.All newsreels have been transferred from original 35 millimeter and 16 millimeter German prints and have been accurately translated and electronically subtitled in English.

In these two 2-hour specials, HISTORY channel digs deep beneath the surface of our collective understanding of the Third Reich to unearth what we don't know about the individuals who comprised one of the most fascinating and complex regimes of recent history. THIRD REICH: THE RISE & FALL tells the story of Hitler's Germany through rarely seen films of the people who were there. Immersive and evocative, it takes viewers inside the Germany of the 20s, 30s, and early 40s, through the use of rare and never-before-seen home movies, Nazi propaganda films and other contemporaneous material. The narrative consists of personal recollections culled from German's diaries, journals and letters.